While the operating budget adopted by the Senate this evening has much to recommend it, Sen. Mike Padden said, it also makes some allocations that the Spokane Valley Republican ultimately could not support.

“I appreciate many things about this budget – especially the fact that it wouldn’t raise taxes and would also allow tax increases from 2010 to expire on schedule later this year. However, it goes a few places that I don’t believe state government should be going,” Padden said. Continue reading →

Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley and a member of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, had this response to the “budget priorities” Gov. Jay Inslee announced today.
“Anyone who voted for Governor Inslee based on the claims he made as a candidate has grounds to be feeling like a victim of the old bait-and-switch. To talk jobs, jobs, jobs during the campaign and then roll out a framework today that could kill jobs a dozen different ways – is that the leadership people thought they were getting? Maybe that trick works in the ‘other Washington’ but it should be a trust-buster with the people of our state. Continue reading →

With only about 48 hours until its next deadline for voting on legislation the state Senate spent Monday afternoon and evening moving dozens of bills forward, including a diverse pair of measures introduced by Sen. Mike Padden. One would save money when it comes to housing construction while the second would address an unforeseen consequence of the marijuana-legalization ballot measure passed in November.

The construction cost-savings bill could be particularly good news for advocates of low-income housing, Padden said. Continue reading →

The Senate today gave its unanimous support this evening to Sen. Mike Padden’s bill to align Washington boating law with the state’s motor-vehicle law when it comes to driving under the influence.

“Alcohol consumption is the leading contributor to boating accidents in Washington,” said Padden, R-Spokane Valley. “There is no simple fix to the problem of boating under the influence, but Senate Bill 5437 will help.” Continue reading →

Brianna was 17, residing in a small Washington town near Interstate 5 and working at the local café when she met the man who acted like a friend but turned out to be a pimp. It’s men like that, participants in a commercial sex industry that views girls as nothing more than products to be bought and sold, who are among the targets of the comprehensive anti-trafficking bill introduced by Sen. Mike Padden and adopted unanimously today by the state Senate. Continue reading →

From tightly-written legislation related to marijuana use and school searches to bills that took on broader issues such as eminent domain and human trafficking, the 42 measures endorsed by the Senate Law and Justice Committee so far in the 2013 legislative session cover a wide swath of concerns.

“I’ve been told more than once that ours is the most interesting of the Senate policy committees because of the range of subjects we take on,” said Sen. Mike Padden, the committee’s chairman. Continue reading →

Bipartisan measure focused on protecting children, combating commercial sex trade

OLYMPIA… The state Senate’s latest salvo in the ongoing fight against human trafficking will be heard Wednesday when Senate Bill 5669 goes before the Senate Law and Justice Committee. The committee meeting begins at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 2, with the comprehensive, bipartisan anti-trafficking measure introduced by Sen. Mike Padden, the committee’s chairman, second on the two-bill agenda.

“This year the Legislature moves into its second decade of battling the scourge of human trafficking. On one hand that’s sobering, because every year we have to come up with a response to some new way that people, especially children, are being victimized,” noted Padden, R-Spokane Valley. “On the other hand it’s uplifting to see the Legislature rise to this fight year after year — there’s nothing that brings us together across philosophical lines the way these anti-trafficking bills do.” Continue reading →